Save Our Plaza supporters were surprised when an property issue contending with the corner lot at 18th Street and Columbia Road, NW, in the heart of Adams Morgan, was suddenly moved out of the local court system into the U.S. District Court at the Federal level.
This legal move happened back in 2017 upon the urging of an international banking corporation, Suntrust, after, we, the people had already won an injunction that stopped the razing of our pedestrian intersection at our local DC Superior Court.
Years after this surprise delivery of our claims to a federal judge, we received a decision. Here’s the Memorandum by Chief Judge Beryl A. Howell on the Adams Morgan Plaza. Suffice to say Judge Howell chooses not to hear the merits and hurts our ability to save our plaza. See the Washington Post article covering the decision.
Bottom line, the federal court says Plaza supporters and Adams Morgan residents don’t have standing to defend the public easement on the pedestrian intersection at 18th Street and Columbia Road, NW. The court doesn’t deny a public easement may exist, it just says the people of Adams Morgan can’t defend it and rather the District of Columbia must do so.
We are not giving up and we ask you don’t either. This means we got to work extra hard to show we want this public easement and open space in the heart of Adams Morgan defended by all city officials and we want them to do so vigorously.
SIGN OUR UPDATED PETITION TO TELL OUR CITY OFFICIALS THAT THIS PLAZA MATTERS — ITS HISTORY AND THE REASON WHY IT EXISTS IN THE FIRST PLACE AND ITS OPEN SPACE AMENITY!
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ACT NOW for YOUR PLAZA! 